During recent years, television systems have been adapted to target tracking systems (e.g. radar) to provide visual tracking data which indicate the operational performance of the target tracking system. One such television system is described in Technical Memorandum TG-1157 (April 1971) of The Johns Hopkins University/Applied Physics Laboratory.
Basically, a high-resolution television camera is aligned with the radar tracking antenna so that the resulting television image is indicative of the track or aimpoint performance on or about the target being tracked. A track symbol inserted electrically into the television image represents the aimpoint of the tracking radar; the track symbol's position being controlled, for example, either by processed angle error information derived from the radar angle tracking gates or by radar antenna position voltages from potentiometers directly coupled to the antenna. The television image (with superimposed track symbol) is then typically recorded on video tape(s) and subsequently played back for the purpose of evaluating performance of the target tracking system.
A somewhat related system for evaluating the aim of a missile firing system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,798,795 to P. F. Michelsen, wherein a data processing unit compares weapons aim data against actual target flight path data (derived from a television system and radar ranging) and known missile ballistics to determine accuracy of weapons aiming. The television system makes use of a light source mounted on a target plane as a reference, to determine actual target location; the position of the light image relative to the center of the television display being determined by circuitry responsive to the television scanning trace.